The 4 Real Life Women Who Inspired Ariel's Design In 1989's The Little Mermaid
Since "The Little Mermaid" was released in 1989, Ariel — with her billowing red hair and affection for ordinary tchotchkes — has become an icon in her own right. Developing Ariel and her various aquatic friends and foes, however, required dipping into a deep well of influences. There is, first and foremost, Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, which originated the Mephistophelian barter between Ariel and the Sea Witch. Other, more modern inspirations emerged as well. The Sea Witch — reimagined as a cephalopodic villain named Ursula — was inspired by the bawdy, brazen drag queen Divine.
After working as an animator on projects like "The Fox and the Hound" and "Oliver & Company," Glen Keane joined "The Little Mermaid" as the supervising animator for Ariel. Keane drew inspiration from the anime stylings of Hayao Miyazaki, using his work as a basis for Ariel's pointed features and expressive eyes. When it came time to find a real-life reference, Keane looked to his own family. "I used my wife Linda as the inspiration for 'The Little Mermaid,'" Keane told Brit + Co. "[Screenwriters and directors Ron Clements and John Musker] asked, 'Can you draw a pretty girl?' 'I've been drawing my wife for 10 years, so I think I can.'"
Aside from Keane's wife, several '80s celebrities served as references for the underwater princess as well.
Ariel was modeled after Alyssa Milano
As described in Emily Zemler's book "Disney Princess: Beyond The Tiara," the "Little Mermaid" animators assembled a vision board full of celebrities to help bring Ariel to life. One visual influence for the teen princess was Alyssa Milano, who at the time was starring in "Who's The Boss?" Milano didn't know she was the unofficial model for Ariel until about a year later when Disney reached out to ask if she would host the Disney Channel special "The Making of the Little Mermaid." "It's really a story about a teenage girl becoming an adult, and the struggle with her father in letting that happen," Keane said in the featurette. As a teenager who was growing up onscreen at the time, Milano was an apt influence.
"I didn't know that when it was going on, but they asked me to host the making of 'The Little Mermaid,'" Milano said in an appearance on "The Wendy Williams Show" in 2013. "And it came out there that the drawing and likeness of 'The Little Mermaid' was based on pictures of me from when I was younger, which is so cool."
Christie Brinkley inspired Ariel's voluminous hair
Ariel's billowing hair was practically a character unto itself, and for her distinct bangs, the animators found inspiration in supermodel Christie Brinkley. Like Milano, Brinkley was similarly chuffed to learn she played a small part in the character's development. "Both my girls could see a little bit of themselves in Ariel," Brinkley posted on her Instagram. "So this morning when a friend sent me this article about me being part of the inspiration for Ariel, we all got a big kick out of it, even if it was a tiny part, because we all saw a bit of ourselves in Ariel."
Animator Philo Barnhart also cited Christina Applegate, then the star of "Married...with Children," as another actor on the mood board. To capture Ariel's hair swirling underwater, Keane and his team studied footage of astronaut Sally Ride in space. The red hair, however, was the animators' idea. "They initially wanted a blonde, but the rest of us said, 'No, let's do a redhead, we've never had a redhead star before," Barnhart recalled to The Nostalgia Critic. "Plus, it was going to look great with the underwater colors."
Comedian Sherri Stoner provided Ariel's mannerisms and tics
For all of the teen icons and supermodels who helped bring Ariel to life, perhaps no one is more responsible than Sherri Stoner, a member of the Groundlings improv troupe who served as the live-action reference on "The Little Mermaid." A few days a month for two and a half years, Stoner would drive to a site near Disney's animation lot, don a leotard, and perform the entire film with the help of rudimentary props and puppets.
"I literally acted out every single scene in that movie, so I know every movement that Ariel makes in the film," Stoner told Entertainment Tonight. The animators looked on to get a sense of the character's potential bodily movements. When Stoner would insert little mannerisms like touching her hair or biting her lip, she said, "They would just light up as if that was the most incredible thing."
In "Disney Princess: Beyond the Tiara," Stoner added, "I know, for instance, me blowing my hair out of my face because my bangs were just too long was something they used. It was a thing that just came out of the moment and being frustrated that my hair wouldn't stay out of my face." Thanks to Stoner, Ariel has a liveliness and clumsiness that isn't as evident in the more composed Disney princesses that came before her.
For Keane and his team, they wouldn't have had it any other way. ”Sherri was the most like the way we wanted Ariel to be," he told the Chicago Tribune at the time of the film's release. "Rather than this real sophisticated grace, there was more of a youthful energy."